Raleigh Christmas History: The Cross Family's 1960's Holiday Display Restored, Makes National Headlines
When these vintage holiday statues were first raised by the Cross family in the 1960’s, they never imagined that nearly 60 years later these decorations would end up on national TV — let alone winning The Great Christmas Light Fight!
Raleigh Christmas in the 1960’s
In the 1960’s, Raleigh families did exactly what they do today — drive around and look at Christmas lights! In those days, the Cross Family on New Bern Avenue held the mantle of most popular Christmas display! Cars would hold up traffic up and down the streets, trying to catch a glimpse of the impressive display.
Sadly, when the family passed away, the display never went up again, and the statues and ornaments were put in storage. Many of the statues were cracked, chipped, and broken — a few had even been ground to dust. That seemed to be the end of the story.
Restoring the Cross Family Holiday Display
Decades later, the Moore family, who had their own large holiday light display, discovered the statues at an estate sale. Even though the statues were chipped and broken), the Moore family recognized the iconic decorations that had once brought Raleigh families so much Christmas joy.
They lovingly restored and repainted the entire set of carolers, wise men, and the manger scene; then, they made the vintage statues the centerpiece of their own display at Happyland Christmas Lights.
A Multi-Generational Christmas Memory
Happyland’s display, like the Cross Family decades past, was visited by thousands of Raleigh families, creating a new generation of Christmas memories. Grandparents could bring their grandchildren and say, “I remember seeing this lights when I was a child.”
My own grandmother, who lived in Raleigh for 92 years, got tears in her eyes when she saw them. It was the last Christmas I had with her; and I’m grateful for such a precious memory.
Happyland Christmas Lights Airs on The Great Christmas Light Fight
The National TV show The Great Christmas Light Fight noticed the display and invited Happyland Christmas Lights to join their contest. And after so many decades of being hidden and broken in boxes, the holiday statues were restored and put on national television for the whole country to see.
And they won.
Today, Happyland, too, has stopped decorating. However, the lights of those holiday memories still remain in the hearts of generations of Raleigh’s families.
Make Christmas Memories with Your Family This Year!
If you love holiday lights and Christmas stories from Raleigh Christmas Past, be sure to catch a ride on our holiday trolley tours! Our tours visit the best displays in Raleigh, sing holiday songs, drink cocoa, and even visit Santa at the North Pole!
We have we FIVE CHRISTMAS TOURS to choose from!
The Santa Express is perfect for kids, including a trolley ride to the North Pole, where magic awaits! Surprises, holiday snacks, Christmas music, twinkling lights, kid-friendly activities, and photos with Santa!
Oak City Holiday Sights & History is ideal for history-lovers! Hear little-known tales from Raleigh Christmas past, curated by a fantastic Raleigh historian. We’ll view the beautiful lights in Downtown Raleigh, including Historic Oakwood, the North Carolina Executive Mansion, the giant City of Raleigh Christmas tree, Saint Mary’s School, and much much more.
Griswold Lights & Sights is the BIG LIGHT tour, visiting the largest and most spectacular displays in Wake County! Inspired by Clark Griswold’s love of the holidays, this tour is approximately two hours in length.
Santa Meet & Greet is just a quick meeting with Santa Claus at the Great North Pole! Avoid those holiday lines for a quick and easy photo with Santa - plus, enjoy the magic at our magically-decorated North Pole.
Oaks & Jokes Holiday Bar Crawl is a more adult tour, led by a professional comedian, which includes stops at Raleigh’s hottest nightlife destinations!
Don’t miss your chance to make holiday memories. In 60 years, when this Christmas is long past, you’ll have the memories to share with the next generation — just like the Cross Family lights.
Haunted Raleigh: Ghostly Footsteps & Voices in the Capitol Building
Overlooking Fayetteville Street, just a few days shy of Halloween, the 179 year old Capitol Building has its share of ghost stories. According to the Capitol Historian, “There have been in the past several incidents that have occurred to both staff and security personnel at the capitol that are heretofore unexplained, and I think everybody on the staff is interested in trying to find the reasoning for some of the occurrences.”
Security & Staff Hear Ghostly Voices and Echoes from the 1800’s
Staff and security have long claimed to hear creaking stairs and unexplained footsteps, like hard shoes knocking on the hardwood staircases on the top floor. Some spirits, however, take the elevator — and sometimes, the elevator doors open and close by themselves, or the elevator goes up and down, with nobody inside to press the buttons.
The lingering smell of ancient cigar smoke wafts down the hall, followed by echoes of voices arguing in the old upstairs meeting rooms. It almost seems like some of Raleigh’s political leaders have refused to leave their post, and even after death they remain in the capitol to watch over the city.
Raleigh’s Best Haunted History Trolley Tours
Whether you love ghost stories or hidden history, our trolley tours offer the best of both! Even after Halloween, we are offering select tours of Haunted History: Paranormal Expedition, which takes guests to Raleigh’s most historically haunted locations, and even lets groups off the trolley to explore a real haunted place using real paranormal gear.
Oak City Haunted is led by a world-class professional storyteller, complete with an eerie costume. The trolley goes down Raleigh’s darkest streets on a haunted storytelling adventure. Our final Oak City Haunted is this Halloween, but it returns every October!
Don’t miss our Hidden History tours, which run all year and give guests an up-close look at Raleigh’s secret underground tunnels, abandoned hospitals, a forgotten 1938 baseball stadium, the remains of the trolley system, and more.
Haunted Raleigh: The Ghostly Legend of the Nazareth Orphanage on Crybaby Lane
The next time you take a stroll through Dix Park, keep an eye out for unmarked graves. While at least 20 unmarked graves have been discovered, there are quite possibly dozens or even hundreds more nameless people buried beneath the earth at Dix Park. Who are they? They are a combination of the enslaved persons of Spring Hill Plantation, the forgotten mentally ill committed to Dorothea Dix, and the lost orphans who passed away in the fire at the Nazareth Orphans. Generations of Raleigh’s forgotten people have been buried on that land. It’s very little wonder why so many ghosts stories center around that area.
Fire and Death at the Nazareth Orphanage
Built in 1898, the Nazareth Orphanage was built to shelter Catholic and Methodist boys, and opened a Seminary in 1902. Tragically, in 1905—less than ten years after it was built—the orphanage had its first fire.
According to the legend of Crybaby Lane, the fire was started by escapees from Dorothea Dix Hospital, which had been built decades earlier in the 1850’s. Dorothea Dix followed the best mental health practices available in the day; however, many of these practices included torturous electroshock therapy. Several construction workers who have been inside the vacant buildings of the original Dix campus claim to have seen chains and beds with metal restraints stored in the basement. According to legend, the men who escaped Dix Hill ran across the field, where the ancient oaks can still be seen a century later, and set fire to the orphanage. Many children perished in the flames, and their rattling screams and the smell of smoke carried all the way to nearby homes.
The field is covered in old, overgrown roads and chunks of concrete from the original buildings and foundations that once stood here. There was even an entire neighborhood of houses, which are now striped to their foundations—but the driveways remain, leading into the dark empty woods.
Haunted by Crying Children and the Smell of Smoke
The orphanage was haunted by a series of fires, another in 1912 and a final fire in 1961 which finally destroyed the building. In the 1970’s, the burnt husk of the enormous orphanage still stood in the field, where NC State students and young adventurers would explore in the dark and add to the ghostly legends.
As more and more houses and apartments built up along Bilyeu Street, Avent Ferry, and Western Boulevard, more people began experiencing frightening occurrences. Citizens often complained of hearing the sounds of children screaming and crying from the abandoned orphanage. Whenever the ghostly crying occurred, it was always accompanied by the strong smell of sulfur, fire, and burning flesh.
People exploring the building’s remains often noticed shadow figures and streamers, often claiming to see the faces of Catholic nuns looking out the highest windows.
Crybaby Lane at night, with creepy overgrown roads that lead nowhere, and dozens of orbs floating in the field. Are the orbs perhaps indicative of the dozens of forgotten, unmarked bodies buried here?
The Orphans’ Lost Graves
While the Legend of Crybaby Lane took on life of its own, the real history of the orphanage is perhaps even scarier than the myth. In truth, there is no record of any patients escaping Dorothea Dix to set fires at the orphanage—although this is likely a ghost story the children themselves told each other when staying awake late at night, peering at the very nearby lights of Dix just across the field. After all, with the legend of Spring Hill and the tales of a “thin man” haunting Dix, this land had been haunted way before the tale of Crybaby Lane.
There fire in 1905 did kill two orphans. Three boys found themselves trapped on the top floor, with several priests laying out soft mattresses on the ground below. One boy jumped, landed on the mattress, and miraculously survived. The next boy missed the mark, slamming into the ground and dying on impact. A third boy leapt, half of his body landing on the mattresses and the other half hitting the hard ground. His injuries killed him a few painful days later.
For decades their graves could be found on the grounds where the Nazareth Orphanage once stood. However, as developers moved through the area, expanding Centennial Campus, the graves have been lost. The headstones have been moved all together, leaving no precise marker by which to survey for the buried boys. Historians are uncertain whether or not the bodies were exhumed and carried to the Catholic Dioceses in New Bern — or whether they are now just another pair of unmarked, unnamed bodies beneath the land surrounding Dix Park.
Do you love Haunted History or Paranormal Tours?
Our guides are professional historians, storytellers, and paranormal investigators — so this is more than just a regular tour, just repeating stories you could Google yourself. Our guides have spent years researching the coolest, weirdest parts of Raleigh history—so you’ll learn the stories you won’t find in books or online! In fact, our Haunted History guide did her own investigation at Crybaby Lane, complete with ghost hunting gear and creepy photos.
Many of our tours are already sold out, but we have a handful of seats left, and by popular demand, we’ve expanded our Haunted History tours into November!
Check out our Halloween selections:
Haunted History: Paranormal Investigation - With professional Raleigh historian and REAL paranormal gear.
Oak City Haunted - With professional, creepy, costumed storyteller.
Laugh to Death - With drinks, laughs, and professional comedian.
Pick the tour that fits you best, and come visit some of Raleigh’s most haunted hotspots!
Wedding Transportation: Historic Downtown Raleigh Trolley
Downtown Raleigh is full of beautiful and affordable wedding venues. Whether you’re dreaming of an outdoor Autumn wedding in the flower fields of Dix Park, a memorable portrait of your first kiss with the city skyline behind you, an intimate gathering in All Saint’s Chapel, or a historic party on the cobblestone streets of City Market—the historic Great Raleigh Trolley provides a picturesque wedding transportation that’s an iconic piece of Downtown Raleigh culture.
Create Memorable Wedding Moments in Raleigh
If you’re looking to create classic wedding photos and beautiful moments, our trolleys provide fun, whimsical, and photogenic wedding transportation. Allow the “shuttle” between your wedding location and reception to be part of the memorable experience. We can provide champagne, music, professional photos, first looks, bachelorette parties, rehearsal dinners, and even tours to ensure the transportation between events is more than “down time” — it’s part of the party!
Historic Raleigh Wedding Transportation
Did you know that antique trolley rails are still beneath Fayetteville Street, Hillsborough Street, and Glenwood Avenue? The Great Raleigh Trolley is modeled after our city’s vintage trolley system, which ran in the late 1800’s through the early 1900’s. In those days, men and women would dress up in their finest clothes just to ride the trolley downtown for a few coins.
Prior to the trolley, Raleigh’s people still rode horses and wagons into and out of the city. Some of Raleigh’s older citizens still remember riding on wagons. The state-of-the-art trolley system served as the major transportation between the growing suburbs, allowing citizens to move further away from downtown, then travel into town for work.
Raleigh even had a trolley park on Glenwood Avenue, which had an electric roller coaster, dance pavilion, picnic grounds, a lake, and a carousel. The carousel was later bought by Pullen Park. In 1914, people would ride the trolley to the end of the line and enjoy a beautiful day at the park.
Because the trolley is Raleigh’s iconic and historic form of transportation, it’s perfect for couples who want to incorporate our city’s history and culture into their special day.
Picturesque Wedding Transportation for Your Perfect Day
We can visit Raleigh’s most picturesque places for photos — Fayetteville Street, City Market, Dix Park, or anywhere that’s special to you. We also do travel outside of Raleigh, so contact us with your specific needs!
Far from your basic wedding shuttle, we’ll help with:
Wedding flowers and decorations
Professional trolley photo shoot
Champagne or cocktails
Music and playlists
Entertainment during transportation
Romantic “first looks”
Bachelorette parties
Get away vehicles
Professional tours
Contact us for a free consultation, and we’ll help you create your perfect day!
Haunted Raleigh: The Ghost of Spring Hill House
The next time you take a stroll through Dix Park, pay close attention. You may be walking over the unmarked graves of lost, unnamed people who were once enslaved on the plantation that once stood there. And if legends are true, the souls resting there may be unhappy.
History of Raleigh’s Haunted Spring Hill Plantation
Beginning in the late 1700’s, Dix Park was home to one of Wake County’s largest plantations—a 5,000 acre farm known as Spring Hill. The antique plantation home still stands on a quiet road near a dark patch of woods. Behind it, the 221 year old grave of Colonel Theophilus Hunter sits weathering away in the shadows of gnarled, ancient oaks—the oldest grave in Wake County. But according to security and students who work inside the house, which is now part of Centennial Campus, Theophilus may not be resting peacefully in his centuries old casket.
According to several reports, some evenings—late after everyone has left the park—the motion sensors inside the house set off alarms. Security guards have verified the motion sensors are detecting someone walking down the stairs and out the back door — as if Theophilus is walking back to his grave.
The Grave of Theophilus Hunter
According to the N&O, NCSU has released a statement of intention to move Hunter’s grave. The ramifications of moving the oldest grave in Wake County impact Hunter’s family, history itself, and possibly the soul of Theophilus.
NCSU also hopes to “disinterred, removed, and reinterred” the 17 unmarked graves thought to belong to the enslaved persons on the property.
Given that intention, the restless spiritual energy within the Spring Hill House could be Theophilus, but it could also be any unhappy spirit who once lived there.
Paranormal Investigations
Paranormal investigators have visited to determine if there is any truth to the legend. Photos show several orbs of light hovering the Hunter gravesite, and security guards confess to have responded to several alarms of the motion sensors going off. One guard also claimed to see lights in the windows after 3am, long after everyone has gone home.
The old oak sitting in front of the house has a human-sized bulge growing like a tumor out the side, calling to mind old legends about trees growing gnarls and lumps after pulling souls from the earth. Walking near the old plantation house at dusk evokes a chill having nothing to do with the crisp Autumn air — it’s the chill of knowing you are walking over unmarked, unnamed graves on a land that once enslaved hundreds of humans. Add in the unmarked plots where forgotten orphans were buried and the nameless Jane Doe’s left behind at Dorothea Dix Hospital, and it seems an area ripe for ghostly legends and haunted tales.
Join a Real Paranormal Investigation
If you love history and ghost stories, check out our new Haunted History: Paranormal Investigation! We’ll visit Raleigh’s spookiest historic places and learn Raleigh’s haunted legends. Guests get to use real ghost hunting gear and get off the trolley to see one haunted place up-close for a real paranormal investigation!
If you prefer a more light-hearted tour, with lots of beer, jokes, and scary stories, check out our Laugh Yourself to Death Tour!
Raleigh’s Heck-Andrews House
HAUNTED MANSION IN DOWNTOWN: Built in 1870, the Heck-Andrews House was one of the first houses built in Raleigh in the aftermath of the Civil War. This Second-Empire style mansion, featuring a unique spiral staircase curling into a tower with a trap door, once held a bustling Raleigh family with 13 children.
However, by the 1980’s it had dwindled down to just one tenant — a bag-lady who would often be seen rolling her cart up and down Blount Street, collecting “treasures.”
Somewhat of a hermit, Gladys Perry was occasionally seen wandering the streets with ghost-white makeup and red-rouged cheeks; but most of the time her creaky old mansion was sealed. Sadly, she was forcibly evicted when the state decided to buy her home. With no family, she was sent to a nursing home, where she rapidly deteriorated and passed away. Her home, full of piles of antique roadside “treasures,” remained abandoned for decades — slowly falling apart inside. The antique stairwell caved in; the beautiful mirrored walls cracked; the ornate ceiling tiles caked in dust and mildew. Ivy grew over the windows and doors, and when curious people would peek inside the dark windows, they’d sometimes swear they saw Gladys’ ghostly white face peering back out at them.
Due to the disturbances, psychics and shamans were called in to do a reading on the house. One shaman reported being haunted by terrible nightmares for weeks after investigating the Heck-Andrews House, describing seeing a “body beneath the basement floor” in her dreams, and hearing it call out to her with wild loneliness. She believed it to be the spirit of the house—or perhaps of Gladys herself—longing for its glory days as a beautiful Blount-Street Mansion, full of children and fancy parties. Tragically, both the house and the tenant both wasted away for decades due to abandonment — so the lonely, haunting soul within could be either one.
Do you want to see some Raleigh sites with REAL history and paranormal legends? Come on our Haunted History: Paranormal Expedition tour, led by a real historian and paranormal investigator, using real ghost-hunting equipment like EVP and air temperature thermometers. Our first tours are this weekend!
leaders in diversity award
We are proud to highlight the stories and history of marginalized communities here in Raleigh, as well as hire diverse employees with diverse skills and backgrounds. Specifically, our Hidden History tours have focused on untold oral histories from historically black communities like Oberlin Village, Method, St. Agnes Hospital, Latta University, and more. We also offer a LGBTQIA+ history tour, visiting places in Raleigh that once played a huge role in providing safety and community for LGBTQIA+ Raleighites. These are the stories that don’t make it into history books—but through collecting firsthand accounts and oral history, we can provide a platform for these important stories from Raleigh’s past. Thank you, Triangle Business Journal, for highlighting our efforts through your Leaders in Diversity awards!
